RSS feeds should be optimized just like your HTML web pages. If you’re already doing some level of search engine optimization, you’ll find it easy to include your sources in your projects. Better optimization means better exposure and more subscribers.
Here are some simple steps to optimize your RSS feed for search engines.
TITLE
Just like your articles, web pages, and blog posts, the titles you use in your feeds should be keyword-rich for search engines, while also enticing people to read more.
LINK
Links within a source must use the full path, not a linked shortcut to ensure the link remains valid. If someone else is displaying your content, there is always a risk that the link will be lost. If you have displayed the full path, a reader can copy and paste.
KEYWORDS
Keywords are not just for titles and within your content. Search engines also like links with keywords. Make sure that all the links to your website also use keywords.
THE SEARCH ENGINES
There is a secret to getting your feeds quickly identified by major search engines. Create a personal account on My.Yahoo, My.MSN and Google+ and link your own feeds on the home page. Once you’ve done this, you can expect search engines to index your feeds in about forty-eight hours.
POPULARITY
Increase your link popularity by submitting your RSS feeds, blogs and podcasts to directories. Go to http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm for a list of places to submit.
DESCRIPTION
RSS feed descriptions are short summaries of the article or blog content being listed. The purpose of the abstract is to entice the reader to click on the link and visit the site that contains the full article or content. Make sure you take the time to create quality summaries of your blog posts and articles.
advertisements
You can use advertisements in your RSS feeds. Start with your logo in every feed. Branding is important, so use your RSS feed as another way to use it. If you are using Google Adsense, please add it to your feed. Go to the “ads” section and click on “feeds”. Use a service like Feedburner to “record” your feed, then use that URL as your referrer, to make sure your ads show up to the most readers.
SUBSCRIBE
A no-brainer? Not really. Make sure you subscribe to your own feeds. An alarmingly large number of publishers don’t take this simple step, so they don’t know what their subscribers are seeing. Subscribing to your own feeds allows you to not only see what it looks like, but also work on formatting and add other items to your feeds.
A IS FOR APPEARING FIRST!
Feeds on aggregators are often listed alphabetically, so if your feed is called Zooligist Digest, it will probably be at the bottom. You may not want to change your site’s name, but you might consider adding a keyword to the beginning of your name that moves you up the alphabetical list. Note that you can rename the example to Summary of a Zoologist to better locate it.
Optimizing your RSS feed is no more difficult than optimizing any other part of your website and following these simple guidelines will help you better position your RSS feed. Like all optimization, it is an ongoing process and is subject to the vagaries of search engine placement.